The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-05-08
Bloxham and the Record.


In the letter of the Hon. p. p. Bishop
to THE PALATKA NEWS on Governor
Drew's record the following sentence
occurs
1T is quite plain that the latter Biloxi
ham's) statement concerning the sale to-
the English syndicate is not in harmony
with the aft davit of Mr. Swami, and |,
for one, believe the affidavit"
To what does this refer:
In the letter to Gov. Drew, Gov. Blox-
ham speaks thus in reference to the Lit
tie Sale"
lin reference to this / will say in the
first place there was no sale to MIR. Lit
tie of 200, 900 acres. The contract with
Mr. Little allowed him to pay about 500
600. and then To examine the lands and
if he did not like them ne would have
the privilege of purchasing no more
than the 800, 900 worth.
Now. would any sensible business
man who owned large real estate wait
upon the doubtful conclusion of a pur-
chaser, or would he endeavor to secure
and bind a party that was certainly reli
able? The records here fully show every
position that have taken. They show
the time / left here and the time l re-
turned. and they show that MIR. Littles
contract did not embrace with a GER
tainty more than about 100000. Be
sides, the State would not have Melted
Zoe per acre on the sale of 1,OOO,OOO to
Mr.. Little. but only SIC. as Mr. Swami
to have 30. per acre for
making the sale. You also au-
thorized Mr.. Swami To sell from
one to three million acres at Soc. per acre
and agreed to give him &c. per acre for
making the sale, which would have net
ted the State only 21c. per acre. In other
words, sir, you criticise me for accom-
plshing a sale which you for four years
had vainly tried to effect. Furthermore,
YOU authorized Mr., Swami to issue and
sell land warrants of 40 acres each at 4Oc.
per acre, paying a commission of &c. per
acre, which was SO manifeStly ruinOus
to the interests of the |. /. fund that
your own agent declined to act under 1t.
Here Bloxham makes a plain state
ment, and we go to the record.
Now, if any sale was perfected or any
contract made as stated it must have
been done under authority given by the
Board of Trustees at Tallahassee on April
%. 1877. 1t was resolved by the Board:
That for the purpose of facilitating
sales of land belonging to the Internal
Improvement fund, this Board will issue
land warrants authorizing the holders
thereof to- locate the quantity Of land
specified therein upon any of the unsold
and unappropriated lands granted to the
State of Florida by the act of Congress,
approved September %, 1850; said war
rant to- be for forty acres, one hundred
and sixty acres, and SIX hundred and
forty acres, To embrace altogether
the quantity of two million acres, for
which one million acres shall be III war
rants of forty acres, and the other mil
lion acres in warrants of one hundred
and sixty, and six hundred and forty
acres, said warrants shall lie signed by
the President of this Board (whOse sigma
ture NAV be engraved or llthOgraphed)
and countersigned by the Commissioner
of Lands and Immigration, and attested
with the seal of the Florida State Land
Office. 1t was further
ResOlred, That Samuel y. Swami,
of Fernandina, Florida, is hereby appoint
ed the agent of this Board for the nego-
tiation of said Land Warrants, and the
said agent is charged with the duty of
having said warrants engraved or lithO-
graphed and printed. the expense thereof
to be paid by he Board. Said warrants
shall be sold by said agent on the follow
ing terms. viz: For the whole issue of
two millions acres, not less than forty
cents per acre. For five hundred thous-
cents per acre, said agent To
retain for his commission on such
sales three cents per acre for land sold
at forty cents per acre, four cents per
acre for land sold at fifty cents per acre,
six cents per acre for land sold at sixty
cents per acre; and our SdU agent as at
Horized, iHStedd Of HegotidtiHg said land
,rdrrdnts, To sell the lands themselves an
quantities of not less than one million
acres and not ercee,iiHg three million
acres, to BE- located iH bodies of not less
than Twenty-Five thousand acres at not
less than thirty cents per acre, the said
agent to retain from the purchase money
has commissions al tie rate Of three cents
per acre.
1t will thus be seem that under the au-
thority thus vested i'm him Swami could
make no such arrangement with Little
as that contemplated in the extract from
Bloxhafn's letter. He could not have
made IA sale Of less than one million acres
at q price of not less than ttreHty-
SCREEN cents, and iH blocks Of not less than
$4,000 dcres. producing not less than
SET, 200 cash. Even if the sale to Little
was the minimum one..undei Swann's au-
thority, it would have yielded enough
under proper management to have COW
cred the largest claims against the fund.
But the record may he safely left To-
speak for itself